Abstract

The manufacture of uncertainty is a central strategy of corporations seeking to advance their interests. Companies may bolster uncertainty in an effort to keep a profitable product on the market or to protect themselves from liability in the case of an ostensibly dangerous good. The stories of companies hiding data, falsifying evidence, or selectively using findings to advance their interests are legend. Tobacco is the classic case of an industry that engaged in an active strategy to generate uncertainty, doubt, and ignorance through advertising, misleading press releases, support for “decoy” research, establishment of research institutes, and funding of supportive research (Proctor 2008).